Everyone tends to think that their respective city has the worst traffic—but who has the data to back that up? Where does Atlanta rank among its peers?
Using American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates, we analyze below commute times across the twenty most populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the United States to see where Atlanta stands in terms of commuter experience. Please note that while the New York MSA is included in this comparison, but the data has not been updated to reflect the city’s new traffic patterns post-congestion pricing.
How Big is Atlanta’s Commuting Population?
Before diving into commute times, it’s important to understand the scale of commuting in each metro area. Figure 1 ranks MSAs by total commuter population, providing a good baseline for comparison.
Figure 1: Number of Commuters for 20 Largest Metros
The Atlanta metro area ranks 9th in total commuters, with 2,487,664 people traveling to work daily.
How Long Does the Average Commute Take?
Now that we’ve evaluated commuter volumes, let’s look at how much time people actually spend traveling to work. Figure 2 below ranks the raw mean commute times for each MSA.
Figure 2: Average Commute Times for 20 Largest MSAs
Perhaps unsurprisingly, depending on how long you were stuck on I-85 today, Atlanta ranks 5th highest mean commute time in the nation, with an average commute time of 32.15 minutes—four places higher than its commuter population rank. This suggests that Atlanta’s transportation network struggles with efficiency, as its commuters spend more time traveling than those in other MSAs with similar or even larger populations.
A high rank in commute time relative to population often points to traffic congestion, sprawling land use, or underdeveloped transit options, all of which the Atlanta metro has in spades.
Weighted Commute Times: A More Accurate Measure of Efficiency
Raw commute times can be misleading—they don’t account for the distribution of commuters across different counties within a metro area. To get a better sense of transportation efficiency, Figure 3 below calculates a weighted mean commute time, adjusting for the number of commuters in each region.
Figure 3: Weighted Average Commute Times for 20 Largest MSAs
With this adjustment, Atlanta remains 5th, with a weighted mean commute time of 31.23 minutes. This places it behind:
- New York City
- San Bernardino (Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA)
- Washington, D.C.
- San Francisco
This weighted approach gives us a clearer picture of regional commuting “efficiency”. The fact that Atlanta maintains its #5 ranking even after weighting for population size reinforces what we already know: Atlanta’s transport system is not as efficient as most others in the country, considering how many people live and work here.
What This Might Mean for Atlanta’s Transportation System
Atlanta’s ranking in commute times—both raw and weighted—indicates that its transportation infrastructure does struggle to efficiently move commuters relative to its size. Unlike some larger metro areas that benefit from dense, transit-oriented development, Atlanta’s more spread-out urban form and heavy reliance on automobiles both contribute to longer commute times. An excellent example of how things could be slightly better can come from comparing Washington DC and San Bernardino, CA. Washington DC, despite having almost a million more commuters and the second highest unweighted average commute, still places third in the weighted average commute time. San Bernardino, however, skyrockets to second–with a less inefficient transport system that’s primarily car-focused, compared to DC’s is more mixed system that includes a very robust public transit system.
By taking a data-driven approach to understanding commute times, we can better assess how Atlanta stacks up against other major metro areas—and what steps might be needed to reduce travel times and improve overall commuter experience.
image credit: https://www.georgiapolicy.org/issues/transportation/